

The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC
Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 9, 2025 • 23min
Ask Governor Murphy: January 2025 Recap
Nancy Solomon, WNYC reporter and host of the “Ask Governor Murphy” monthly call-in show, recaps her conversation with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Topics this month included congestion pricing, affordability, year-eight priorities and more.

Jan 9, 2025 • 48min
Thursday Morning Politics: Left & Right on the Transition
Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News and author of several books including The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution (Henry Holt and Co., 2023), and Emily Jashinsky, DC correspondent for UnHerd, co-hosts of the YouTube podcast "Counter Points," talk about the presidential transition and the national political news of the day.

Jan 8, 2025 • 39min
100 Years of 100 Things: Modernism
As our centennial series continues, Victoria Rosner, dean of the Gallatin School at NYU and the author of Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life (Oxford University Press, 2020), talks about the post-World War I development of modernism (and post-modernism) across the arts and beyond.

Jan 8, 2025 • 27min
Reporters Ask the Mayor: Perception vs. Reality of Public Safety, Congestion Pricing, Additional Criminal Allegations, and more
Mayor Adams holds one off-topic press conference per week, where reporters can ask him questions on any subject. Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, recaps what he talked about at this week's event. This week's topics include how he's fighting the perception of crime in subways, whether city workers will receive exemptions from congestion pricing, the possibility of new criminal charges against the mayor, and more.

Jan 8, 2025 • 44min
Meta Prepares for Trump 2.0
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that its social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram and Threads—will stop using third-party fact-checkers and rely solely on its users to flag misinformation. Mike Isaac, New York Times reporter covering tech companies and Silicon Valley, explains why the company is repositioning its policy and how that may favor President-elect Donald Trump's second administration. Plus, Yael Eisenstat, senior fellow at Cybersecurity for Democracy and former global head of Elections Integrity Ops for political advertising at Facebook, discusses her time at Facebook in 2018 as the head of global elections integrity for political ads and what this new move could mean for the company’s ability to meet its responsibility to secure elections.

Jan 7, 2025 • 31min
Health and Climate with Rep. Pallone
U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D NJ 6th), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, kicks off the new weekly series with a discussion of the work of the committee and what to expect under the new administration.

Jan 7, 2025 • 8min
New Year's Resolutions One Week In
It's been one week since people's New Year's resolutions began. Listeners call in to share how it's going so far, whether they've fallen off and how they can encourage others to keep going.

Jan 7, 2025 • 30min
Mayoral Primary 2025: Assembly Member Mamdani
New York State Assembly Member Zohran K. Mamdani (D-36, Queens) talks about his campaign for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, plus what he'll be focusing on in the next New York State legislative session.

Jan 7, 2025 • 40min
City Doctors Threaten to Strike
Doctors at four of the city's public hospitals are threatening to strike to protest working conditions, pay and other issues that are part of their stalled contract negotiations. Gray Ballinger, primary care physician at H+H/Queens Hospital Center, explains what's at stake for the physicians, and the largely low-income patients who depend on the public hospitals for care.

Jan 6, 2025 • 10min
What Did You Name Your New Baby?
The New York City health department's most recent tally of top baby names put Liam and Emma on top. Listeners call in to share what they named their newborns this year, and whether the name landed on the top 10 list, or if they drew from the past or another well to find a unique name for their new baby.


